John Feehery: Speaking Engagements

The Bad and Good John McCain

Posted on January 26, 2010

The Bad and Good John McCain

Like every person on earth, John McCain has both a good and bad side. But because he is a big time politician, the two sides of the Senator play out on the world stage.

With his announcement that he is opposing Ben Bernanke, we are seeing the bad side of John McCain. This is the side that takes the politically expedient path, without thinking through all of the implications.

McCain is facing J.D. Hayworth, a former football player, a former radio jock, a former Congressman, who made a name for himself opposing immigration and who has the populist wing of the party fired up. So, McCain is trying to out-populist Hayworth, which I think is a fool’s errand. Nobody can out-populist J.D, not even the populist side of John McCain.

McCain is bad when he makes rash decisions that he believes will help him advance politically. Picking Sarah Palin was a bad decision. No way was she ready to be President.

Saying that he thought it was fine that South Carolina fly the Confederate flag was a bad call. He himself later said he regretted it.

Pushing for drugs to be reimported from Canada was a bad policy. We have the FDA here for a reason. Allowing RX drugs to flow in from our northern neighbor was terrible for safety reasons.

The McCain-Feingold bill was a disaster, not only for Republicans, but for the cause of free speech in this country. The Supreme Court finally through it out last week, thankfully.

McCain is terrific on some issues. He was right on the surge, and he showed courage in the face of a bad political scene when he took on the media, the Democrats and some of his colleagues to push for a winning strategy in Iraq.

He is right on spending, and that takes courage. Your colleagues can really screw you if you mess with their earmarks, but McCain doesn’t care about that. He cares about getting rid of pork.

He was right on the taking on Jack Abramoff and his pilfering of millions of dollars from the Indian Tribes. This action was also courageous, in the face of a powerful lobbyist and his very powerful friends.

So, we have a good John McCain and a bad John McCain.

The bad John McCain has decided to vote against Ben Bernanke, because he wants to appeal to conservative populists who might vote for his opponent in a primary.

But it seems to me there is a simple explanation that should appeal to conservatives. Should I vote for the Fed Chairman who believes in the free market and who was initially appointed by a conservative Republican or should I vote against the free-market conservative and give President Obama a chance to put someone in who doesn’t believe in the free market and who will forever be beholden to the President’s party.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I certainly hope the good John McCain tells the bad John McCain that he has changed his mind and is now going to vote for Ben Bernanke